#I need to edit before I post it though
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glimblshanks · 5 months ago
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Some thoughts on why I like Mariner x Tendi as a pairing:
I feel like baseline what makes Mariner and Tendi a good couple is that they're both intensely loyal people.
Like being a good and loyal friend is literally Tendi's primary personality trait. Mariner doesn't wear her heart quite so on her sleeve but I think it's pretty clear that she's the sort of person who has a couple choice people that she's fiercely loyal and protective of, and often feels betrayed when that loyalty isn't reciprocated.
And I think what's cool about the two of them as a pairing is that they can match each other's expectations in that regard in a way that no one else in the main 5 does.
Boimlers main characters arc the first two seasons is literally learning to prioritize his friendship with Mariner in the same way she does. T'Lyn, similarly, spends season 4 essentially learning how to be a good friend to Tendi and Mariner. Rutherford is certainly loyal to Tendi, but he doesn't really express that sentiment more broadly, and even shows some confusion over Mariner coming after him to help in A Few Badgeys More, like it's not something he would expect from their relationship.
So really, in terms of tit for tat reciprocity they're the only two members of the group who actually manage to match each other's expectations when it comes to being loyal friends.
I think this even helps to contextualize some of the miscommunication between them in We'll Always Have Tom Paris. Why would Tendi and Mariner think they're good friends when they've never been on a mission together and Mariner doesn't even know Tendi's first name?
Because they've both simply *decided* they have friendship loyalties to each other. Doesn't matter if they know anything about each other, Mariner is more than happy to put herself on the line to protect Tendi (as evidenced by the fake shuttle crash) and Tendi has already decide she should prioritize spending one on one time with Mariner. See? friends!
I also think (and I'm sure I've already said this on here somewhere) that they foil each other nicely.
Mariner grew up in cheerful, peppy, everyone be friends and get along Starfleet before fighting in a war and becoming disillusioned and closed off. Tendi grew up as an Orion Pirate who was supposed to scheme and lie and keep things close to her chest and she rejected that upbringing to go be a happy, peppy Starfleet officer.
They are both influenced by their backgrounds in ways that they find inescapable. They both have to find a balance between rejecting the beliefs they grew up and accepting the benefits their backgrounds have given them. And when they're together they can use those similarity in experience to help each other grow.
Idk, they're just so interesting together and I wanted to write an explanation because I think their pairing is under appreciated.
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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 1 year ago
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Get Souped!
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golyadkin · 8 months ago
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You ever notice a running theme in your life?
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icewindandboringhorror · 1 month ago
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Little bright colored outfit with a fun vest ~
(shoes from ebay like 10 years ago. everything else is thrifted)
#ootd#jfashion#fashion#fantasy fashion#mori kei#....like... adjacent... lol#no idea what style this would be lol.. makes me think of like whimsical vaguely fantasy themed childrens book character#finally posting one of my aforementioned seven million drafts of actual outfits and costumes i have finished and edited#the photos for but just never feel like posting lol..#I need to find one of those people whos like 'omg i am ADDICTED to social media ugh i wish i could get off of it#im just browsing and posting like 60 times a daaaaay!!!' and take a little magical bottle and suck some of the social media#enthusiasim out of them. for moi. In exchange they can have some of my 'literally just never in the mood to post or interact with the#outside world ever' energy. We can balance each other. huzzah and so on#Though I think maybe it's part of the general thing I've heard of like.. I can't remember if it was in reference to adhd or just some sort#of general execcutive functioning issue type of thing - but the idea that things have to be ''just right'' before you do something. like#'oh i need to do this task. but i have to wait until XYZ first' or 'oh i can do this but only if X specific condition is met' or etc#The fact that I even have to be in a Specific Mindset to post. or sometimes will delay posting on social media because like 'oh well#I'm going somewhere tomorrow. somehow this matters. i cannot spend 5 minuts posting TONIGHT. clearly it will interfere#somehow schedule wise with the doctor appointment i have 15 hours from now. yes. yes. i must wait until my appointment is over#tomorrow afternoon. THEN i shall post' or etc. etc. lol. NOT even taking into account the many days#I just genuinely and physically sick and it's not even a mental thing. I just physically dont feel like sitting at the computer lol..#ANYWAY.. trying to get back into it. trying to get a business bank account.. make a proper paypal so i can start selling sculptures again.#selling clothes and sculptures.. posting about such things then of course as one must. etc... chanting to hype up and motivate myself lol#But yes. this is my favorite outfit out of the bunch so I am posting it first I guess.. maybe others later..#Also the purple dress says its from shein. which I've heard is bad fast fashion stuff. but maybe okay since its second hand? I havent#been to the bins since like 2020 or late 2019 even. and I think stuff like shein and temu has only become poular in the past few years#but I bet if I went to the bins now I might would find a good handfull of that stuff. Probably now not much different than what you#find in a walmart or a forever 21 or actual physical stores you can go to though. I hear quality of clothing is down everywhere no matter#where you get it or whatnot. What bountiful joys unfettered capitalism and exploitation bestows upon us (<being sarcastic).#Wearing one of my favorite little vests though. I love the texture of it and the clasps on it
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raycatz · 6 months ago
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WIP ask game, artist edition! (writing welcome too)
RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! then tag as many people as you have WIPs.
It's been really fun reading about what everyone's working on! Let's get the artists involved, too! I want to see everyone's aaa.fileextention and aaaa.fileextention pieces hehe.
I have so many LU comic ideas! For most of them I have the dialogue, visuals, and acting written out. Some have art! Everything from initial concepts to multi-chapter fic.
Here's the .csp wips I have atm! Some of them are tied to comic ideas and some are stand alone.
shunk
haha tanlines
apple tree
chores
wind_maya_19_simpleRig_pose.mb
smack_audio_shorter
theblorbos
pixels2
om nom
nehneh
sleeps
full sprint
headache
ico
uuuuuhhhhh
mftrainsbro
huhwha & hhhwa
beetleeeee
Non LU writing & art wips
lizard
whee
wobbles
corn
sleepy ocs
Moe the Moblin (the idea lives on the LU ideas google doc but it's gen loz. could be LU if you wanted it to be, though! Open to interpretation.)
SSBU Links - Chateau Romani
SSBU Links - Get Out Of The Water!
Mina's Linkverse - Goat Plushie
Team Ico AU
Major & Minor Beats & Shot Types: Dragon Tower
While tagging as many people as I have wips might be possible, maybe, it would definitely be excessive! I'm tagging: @zolanort, @liccy, @luwyv, @mizaruwu, @theegh0st,
@bluevaractyl, @grenapple0547, @starrysorry, @twilight-linkess, @genderfluid-puddle-of-soup,
@awkwardpossum0, @ghostlykidplaidbanana, @jellydragons, @off-mozzarella, @kikker-oma (Oma, do you have any projects outside of Fan Joy July you want to share? :D ) and anyone who wants to play!
(also feel free to ignore the @. This is for fun and only if you want to!)
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kirisclangen · 7 months ago
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Zelda
She/her, 65 moons, cis molly
#Zelda (cat)#<- so it doesn't go in the fandom tags of the game lmao#Loner#honeyclan#<- the save file she's from. I'm gonna say she lives nearest to them#warrior cats oc#warriors oc#kiri’s clangen#clangen#She also doesn't have the chest spot on her sprite but I thought she looked better with it so. Y'know#I made her fur so massive but I need it to be known that the rest of her is massive as well. She's jut very large#also I HAVE RETURNED TO THIS BLOG!!! Can't say how regular activity here will be but I'm queueing this on thursday to go up on friday#and I've got three more finished cats to go up the three days after that. We'll see how many more I draw before the queue runs out#I'm doing hermit-a-day-may over on my main blog and I'm coming up on the end of the schoolyear so I may be mostly swamped until summerish#but I'd like to pick back up with posting these during the summer. I have some ideas for a comic that I'd like to do but I haven't written-#-it out yet becuase I want to get these designs done first and I think I'm about halfway through all the cats I have? across 5 different-#-clans two of which are very large so. Mass extinction events will be on once I start playing moons again!!#anyways sorry for rambling but I'm very proud of my next few designs. I think I've found a good method for doing them quickly. It involves-#-using actual reference images for the poses lmao#EDIT I lied I'm not even close to halfway#I've got 66 out of 181 done meaning I have 115 left#jesus fucking christ ITS FINE it's fine it's just a lot. not a problem though#I can pick up the pace after this next month or two#it's chill
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intotheelliwoods · 2 years ago
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... soon.
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waywardsalt · 4 months ago
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rough rough draft of chapter 1 of the bellum x linebeck fic
Though the storm had passed and the sun finally shown upon the sea again, Linebeck felt gloomy. He leaned against his ship’s rope railings and stared at the horizon. The night before, the pounding of the rain had put him at ease. Now, the bright afternoon had brought back that familiar anxiety. After some thinking, Linebeck pushed himself away from the railing and resolved to begin his morning chores.
                As the only person on his ship, it was up to Linebeck to take care of it- and he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. He knew his beloved steamship like the back of his hand, and he collected a bucket as he blinked the last of the sleep from his eyes. Firstly, he gathered seawater to dump into the engine’s storage tank. The ship was drifting at the moment, but once Linebeck would turn it on, the heat would build up in the engine and the water would boil and evaporate and build up steam to get the wheels moving.
Linebeck knelt at the lowest edge of the deck and dunked the bucket into the water for the ninth- tenth? - time. He’d have to do some extra engine maintenance before he got moving. He’d been traveling during the entire storm, likely pushing the engine to its limits. But after the water gathering, Linebeck checked the hull for barnacles and scratches, checked the railings for damaged rope, checked his food and water supplies, barely giving himself a moment of rest while he went through the familiar motions.
Since he began sailing, Linebeck’s life had been altogether monotonous and unpredictable. His ship was one he had designed himself, and knew better than anyone else how to take care of and operate it. He had no desire to take on a crew, and knew from experience that they’d only hold him back- trying to teach new people how to work his ship was incredibly tedious and often led to them making mistakes and doing more harm than good. The last bastard he’d temporarily hired and bothered to teach about his ship- Linebeck scowled and shook his head. Not even worth thinking about, now.
The storm had replenished his fresh water supply. It had been bad enough to obscure visibility across the sea, so Linebeck had done some fishing. If he cared for gods, he would have thanked one that he made it through without getting sick.
He didn’t need a crew. Linebeck hadn’t had a long-term crew member for what- seven years now? They just made him feel uneasy and he could never muster up the patience to put up with them.
Or maybe he kept finding the wrong people. That had certainly happened before. He was never particularly good with other people. Linebeck was almost certain that he’d made a good few new enemies just in the last month. His eyes scanned the horizon as he walked back out onto the deck. Linebeck tightened his grip on his mop’s handle. He was totally alone. And yet his skin prickled with unease.
“…No point worrying,” he mumbled to himself. He started mopping the deck, forcing himself to keep his eyes trained on the wood. His last chore of the morning was always the most soothing. He moved slowly and rhythmically, beginning at the prow and slowly making his way back to the cabin. His ship was small, though large enough to be comfortable for him. The deck sloped upwards a few feet from the cabin and plateaued, about a foot higher and better to accommodate the rooms and machinery beneath.
The air was warm and humid; Linebeck brushed his hair out of his face and behind his shoulders. He considered removing his coat, but he was nearly done mopping- no point in wasting the time. The heat was never a big issue for him. He was perfectly suited to the sea, and Linebeck felt more than confidant handling every aspect of this life on his own. No problems whatsoever. No good reason for the anxiety that refused to leave his mind.
Maybe there was a good reason, the same reason why he kept scanning the horizon.
Finished mopping the deck, Linebeck turned to admire it. The storm had cleaned it well enough, but now that the sky was clear he wasn’t just going to cut out part of his morning routine.
With everything done for the morning, Linebeck gathered up his mop and the bucket and moved to put them away. The bucket would be dumped out and left with other containers in the storage room, the mop left in the engine room… and then the engine would need to be started up. The nearest inhabited island was two days away (with good conditions), so while Linebeck had no need to get going right that moment, he felt safer with the engine running.
To get the engine started, Linebeck pulled a lever by the wheel up and waited a moment as he heard the hissing of steam start, and then stop. He knelt down in front of the storage tank. Enough water for the day, that was for sure. He withdrew his matchbox from a pocket in his coat and struck a match, humming idly to himself as he tossed it in the space below the water. It would only be a few minutes before the ship could get going; over the years, Linebeck had gone back and forth on the design of the engine, and managed to make it especially efficient with different materials and methods, and was quite proud of it. While the water heated up, he shut the tank door and sat back, resting a moment.
He’d gotten… some sleep last night. He’d dreamed briefly, and didn’t feel as terrible as he usually did. Some sleep. Better than no sleep at all. Linebeck laid down on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. He stared at the winding pipes at the tops of the walls and then shut his eyes. If he was lucky, he could perhaps find a few minutes to nap. Just a few minutes…
The ticking of the machinery around him slowly faded in as the engine properly started up. The sound melted into with the noise of the ocean outside, and Linebeck felt his anxieties ease. The familiarity of his daily routine eased his mind like nothing else.
The next island was north of his position… Linebeck let out a long breath. He’d have to at least position his ship facing north, and get started within the hour. He sat up and stretched. If he got started now, he could reach the island by late tomorrow. The engine was ready to go, and Linebeck smiled to himself as he fiddled with some of the smaller levers and switches, listening to the subtle changes in the ticking and clicking around him.
He paused when he heard up an unfamiliar noise. Linebeck stilled his hands, suddenly feeling cold.
Without thinking, Linebeck kicked the engine into proper operation and after a moment, the wheels on either side of the ship started turning and he quickly steered the ship in the opposite direction of that odd sound. He heard it again, from outside his ship- the unmistakable sound of cannon fire, and Linebeck was not brave enough to stop and check to see if it was aimed at him.
It was usually aimed at him, anyways.
Linebeck steered his ship away and locked the wheel in place; he felt his heart pounding in his chest as more muffled canon fire reached his ears. One sounded closer than the rest, and he managed to tear himself away from the wheel and run up to deck. Running away was nice, but he needed to know where to run away to.
It seemed like he was getting chased more and more. Linebeck figured he ought to start a list of the crews that had it out for him; that was something to do once he was safe. He stumbled out onto the deck and leaned over the rope railing, staring at the southern horizon. Sure enough, he could see a pirate ship in the distance heading his way, and the wind was in their favor.
Linebeck gripped the railings until the rope started to dig into his skin. The hell did he do to them? He recognized the decorated sails as the sails of the ship that’d been pursuing him before the storm. Their captain was one he’d cheated out of several hundred rupees in poker- or was that a different crew? No time to think it over while they got closer and closer. More cannon fire rang out, and Linebeck jumped back as the cannonball splashed into the water dangerously close to his ship.
Sailing in a straight line was a terrible idea. Better to leverage his steamship’s advantages and focus on disrupting their aim. Linebeck wildly looked around. No rocks or islands in sight. His best hope was to run for it and hope that either they’d run out of cannonballs or the wind would die down. He raced back inside.
He was just one man; why did all of these pirates decide that being slighted by him once marked him as the biggest threat to them on the entire Great Sea? Pirates were so petty. He flinched when he heard a muffled splash and felt the ship rock. Linebeck gripped the wheel tightly and started turning the ship west, his sweaty hands almost slipping off. He gritted his teeth as the cannon fire sounded closer and the ship rocked again.
The last time he’d been pursued like this, a cannonball had burnt his hull and cost him several days of sleep. Linebeck turned the ship far enough around to spy the pursuing pirates again; the moment he heard the cannon fire again, he spun the wheel to sail in the opposite direction. Turning was slow, but his ship never stopped moving. He’d had nightmares about one of the wheels being damage, and Linebeck felt weak in the knees just thinking about it.
As the pirate ship slipped out of view, the waters around his ship were more violently disrupted, and Linebeck yelped as his ship was more violently rocked by the waves. There was no cannon fire, no sound of a cannonball hitting the waves- and the water was clearly churning too violently for it to have been a cannonball. He clung to the steering wheel for dear life, his knees nearly buckling underneath him, and the cacophonous sound of an especially large wave made him wince. The ship rocked again, but still no cannon fire. Instead, Linebeck picked up a new muffled noise.
…Splintering wood?
The wood of his own ship was fine, there was no motion asides from the violent waves rocking his ship, but the distant splintering continued, and with it, faraway screams. For the second time in barely five minutes, Linebeck’s curiosity prevailed over his fear. On shaky legs he stumbled up onto his deck- slick with water that had poured onboard, and nearly fell over the railings when he reached them.
The pursuing pirate ship was being torn apart by something. Something had pulled the main mast down and split it in half, tearing through the sails and ripping the vessel in half. Linebeck squinted, hardly seeing anything that could be causing it, then caught a glimpse of what looked like a thick black rope curled around the prow, tearing it clean off and dragging it into the sea. The way those ‘ropes’ moved; Linebeck slowly slid down into a crouch as he realized that a sea monster was what was attacking that ship.
One pirate jumped from where the prow had been, likely trying to escape and swim away, but a black tentacle shot out of the water and grabbed them midair and yanked them below the water. Linebeck felt frozen to the spot, more than grateful that he wasn’t the creature’s target, but he feared that if he took advantage of the chaos and sailed away, he would be attacked next.
The pursuing ship began to sink, and the sharp cracking of wood was piercing as it reached Linebeck’s ears. The hull was torn in two, more tentacles appearing to crush them into unsalvageable wreckages. The fear that shot through Linebeck urged him to straighten back up. He started to hurry back into the engine room, but stopped in his tracks as the tentacles withdrew back into the water.
The pirate ship’s remains slowly sank, survivors clinging to any floating pieces. Linebeck stared at the water around his ship. That… thing had stopped. That sea monster that he and those pirates had the misfortune to disturb.
That sea monster- Linebeck had researched every possible hostile creature that had been seen on the Great Sea, and that certainly had to have been one of them. He grabbed onto his railing again, feeling too sick to move his gaze from the sinking ship down to the waters just below him. He stood at the end of the railing, steady on the sloping deck despite the way his limbs shook and his heart hammered in his chest.
There was a sea monster in these waters. It had just wiped out an entire pirate crew in hardly a minute. From what Linebeck could recall, that pirate crew was rather prepared and experienced, and their ship certainly wasn’t some glorified piece of driftwood. This wasn’t just an overgrown gyorg or some other typical sea monster- he was at the mercy of the kind of sea monster that had stories passed around. The kinds that endured for decades or even centuries and were either worshipped or feared. He’d never seen a regular sea monster that had those kinds of tentacles and was that quick and deadly.
One of the stranded pirates was suddenly and violently pulled under water. Linebeck lowered himself back down to a crouch, staring at the now-empty patch of water. After a few moments, a faint red hue bloomed from deep under the surface.
I’m going to die.
The thought seemed to echo in Linebeck’s head. It wasn’t a thought he was unfamiliar with, but it was much, much more frantic now than ever. He was going to drown or be eaten. Even if he got out unscathed, his ship likely wouldn’t, and that sounded just as bad as if he got injured. Linebeck shakily stared down at the water mere feet from him. Every tiny wave and ripple in the water heightened his anxiety, and his mind raced. Another pirate was pulled under the water, eaten, and the waters were still for a moment. Then, there was a subtle ripple further away from the wreckage and closer to Linebeck’s ship.
How do I get out of this?
Linebeck’s terror forced him to his feet, and he raced into his ship’s cabin. That monster was more than capable of catching up with that pirate ship, and Linebeck stumbled on his way down the stairs as his ship rocked slightly.
This monster was capable of killing and catching him with ease, and it tore apart that pirate ship with ease, and it was eating the survivors, and Linebeck was up next if he didn’t think fast. His feet brought him into his ship’s cramped kitchen, and he stood still in the doorway for a moment. His fear and quick-thinking seemed to crash into each other, and his mind went blank as he stared around. Linebeck switched his attention from his utensils to the fish he’d recently caught and had yet to clean to the cupboards. Why the hell had he run here?
The sea monster killed all of the pirates. It was probably chasing after him now. It tore apart the ship, and… ate the pirates. Ate the pirates. Linebeck stared at his recently-caught fish. There were a pair of smaller amberjacks he’d picked up during the storm, a seabass he had a few different plans for, and then a large loovar he’d been planning to sell. He suddenly felt itchy looking at that loovar. He was going to sell it. It was a large, pristine loovar, with sleek, undamaged scales and was over five feet long and took up the entire counter that fit in the narrow kitchen. It was valuable and would net him a good sum of rupees at the next island he docked at.
Linebeck’s ship rocked again, violently enough to knock him off balance. The terror finally mixed with his quick thinking and he grabbed and yanked the loovar off the counter, stumbling a moment under its weight. He slung it over his shoulder and hauled it up the stairs, his shoulder aching before he was even in the engine room. Goddesses, his coat was going to reek if he made it out of this alive.
He paused to grab his mop and tuck it into the crook of his elbow and stumbled a bit, stubbornly keeping the fish from touching the floor. The ship rocked under his feet again, and Linebeck shuddered and hurried out onto the deck. The water around his ship’s hull ripped every few moments, and Linebeck didn’t hesitate in letting the loovar drop onto the wood. He kicked it off the deck, and it fell unceremoniously into the water and floated barely a few inches from the hull- too close.
With the mop he prodded at it and sent it floating slowly away from his ship. And so, Linebeck huddled at the edge of his deck, leaning against his mop for support. For just a moment, the waters were still. The loovar bobbed on the water’s surface and the sunlight glinted off its scales. Linebeck exhaled slowly. For all he knew, the monster could have already left. He could probably grab the loovar if he was careful.
Linebeck started to reach back out with the mop, but drew it back as the water around the loovar suddenly started to ripple. The rippling grew more furious, and the water began to bubble and small waves started rushing out from around the fish- a dark shape was just barely visible deep in the water. The shape rushed to the surface, and Linebeck only got the quickest glimpse before falling backwards onto the deck as the largest waves yet set his ship violently rocking.
It was huge, easily half the size of his ship, and a stunning yellow. For the split second he saw it, Linebeck couldn’t discern any detail, but he didn’t miss the mouth full of sharp teeth that engulfed the loovar. Linebeck had fallen onto his back and didn’t dare move as the sea calmed down, the blurry image of the beast burnt into his mind. He stared up at the sky and realized that the fear in his chest had eased. Had he appeased the creature? The rocking of his ship slowly stopped, and he felt he was in no hurry to get up.
There was a slight splashing, and Linebeck jolted upright. He stared off the edge of the deck, at where the loovar had been floating. It stared back at him. The sunlight glinted off its yellow body, greenish in some spots, and golden in others. Under the water, the rest of it was just a murky shadow. In its mouth, encircled by those teeth, was an eye that stared back at him, the tiny pupil within a burning yellow and orange, surrounded by deep black. A monstrous eye, and one that Linebeck could’ve sworn he’d seen somewhere. Something about the thing’s unblinking gaze made a sense of visceral horror return to Linebeck, and before he could think it through, he scrambled to his feet.
The creature didn’t move in the water, but its eye followed his movements. Despite the hammering of his heart, Linebeck couldn’t tear his gaze away from that eye. His limbs felt locked in place, and his breathing came in in ragged gasps and he realized just how bad his situation had gotten. There was no way that loovar was enough to save him. He’d seen the way the creature had torn apart that pirate ship. He’d seen the way it had grabbed and killed those pirates. There was nothing keeping it from killing him next.
Then, without any sound but the sounds of the water, the creature sank down into the ocean and out of sight.
Linebeck immediately hurried back into his cabin, just barely remembering to snatch up his mop.
He wasted no time in getting his ship up and running again, and set a course for the island before even thinking of relaxing. Linebeck anxiously surveyed the sea as he steered the ship away, but spotted nothing out of the ordinary.
…Maybe the loovar had satisfied that… thing. Linebeck tried not to think much about it. But his nerves were still shot by the encounter, and he stiffly steered until the sun began to set.
He didn’t anchor the ship until stars glittered in the sky. Linebeck moved gingerly around his ship, half expecting that monster to return. But the evening was quiet, and Linebeck eventually felt relaxed enough after doing his rounds. He collected every book he had that mentioned sea monsters and went out on deck to read and rest.
Linebeck rested against the prow. He set the books in his lap and started flipping through each one, quickly skipping through what turned out to be a catalogue of common seafaring enemies, and finding a short collection of short stories based on powerful creatures around the world. As the sun dipped further below the horizon, Linebeck finally reached a much more informative book- one that had been gathering dust at the edge of the shelf- and flipped through more slowly, inspecting each illustration. Dragons, sentient plants, fish creatures, and Linebeck slowed down upon reaching the chapter reserved for deities. It didn’t take long for him to turn a page and find a familiar illustration.
It was little more than a collection of sketches, but that eye was unmistakable. Linebeck leaned over the book with a small spark of triumph in his heart. He was right- it was one he’d heard of before, a creature named ‘Bellum’. Apparently a powerful, demonic sea monster.
Linebeck felt a faint shiver down his spine and he sat up and stared off across the sea. He shut the book and gathered up the rest. Back in the cabin, he locked the door out, and hesitated with his hand on the knob. That nearby island was his destination, a small island with a small town that he’d been for. He needed supplies, needed to restock on food and parts and whatever else eluded him at the moment.
He double-checked the lock and silently headed down into the storage room. Linebeck left the volume with the information on Bellum on the table, and put the rest back on the bookshelf behind the thin bar that kept them from falling out.
Bellum.
Linebeck turned and stared at the book on the table. In the dim light of the few lit lanterns in the room, the book seemed almost ominous with its dark cover and elaborate spine. Where had he picked this one up? Was it one from home, or something he’d bought on a whim a while ago? Either way, it was worth reading through and taking notes on- even if the information he wanted seemed to only take up two pages.
Linebeck idly rubbed his hands together. The only indication of his lingering anxiety was the thin layer of sweat on his palms. Most sea monsters were known through shared stories and rumored sightings. Once he got all he could from the book, he could start asking around at islands. With any luck, though, he wouldn’t have to see that thing again.
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suddencolds · 9 months ago
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almost done... 🙏
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slightly-nerdy-rambles · 4 months ago
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Robstar Week Day 7: Like the Fire, the Sun (Prompt: Playlist)
After putting some thought into the final prompt for this week, I decided to get a bit creative with it. Many of you are probably familiar with the Royal Family Verse, a special "setting" that I like to place one Robstar Week entry in each year. Well, when I was planning out each of the fics for this year, I realized that 1) I was six fics in and still hadn't made plans for an RFV fic yet, and 2) I didn't really have any good ideas to make "playlist" into a story. So then I thought, "Why don't I make the playlist, have it be an RFV playlist, and use one of those songs as a story prompt?"
What follows is a story set in the 'verse that's inspired by the song "You Are the Beginning" by The Family Crest. It's a sweeping, epic piece (The Family Crest is really good at those, I highly recommend the group) that gave me the mental image of Nightwing and Starfire standing together on a cliffside and staring down an alien invasion fleet. Because of today's theme, both the title of the fic and the lyrics at the beginning are from that song as well.
As a bonus, I'm also going to post the playlist itself once this fic is up. Now you, too, will be able to listen along while thinking about Robin and Starfire being awesome warrior monarchs together. Enjoy everyone, and happy Robstar Week!
Like the Fire, the Sun
Oh, what a love that gives And then taketh all away Oh, what a man will do When a man’s lost everything When everything’s changed
One of the less pleasant things Nightwing had learned from moving to Tamaran was that the Vega star system it was a part of was kind of terrible. Half the inhabited planets were veritable death-worlds, more than half of them seemed to be in competition with one another over who could make the most tyrannical and expansion-hungry interplanetary empire, and everyone who just wanted to be left alone had to deal with it. As loath as he was to admit it, he could see why some members of the intergalactic scene looked at the powerful warrior race of Tamaran and assumed they were just another gang of space thugs.
But he had also seen, time and time again, that those naysayers couldn’t be more wrong. Starfire’s people – his people, by rite and marriage – weren’t some mindless brutes, they were survivors. He’d seen them wrestle beasts five times a man’s size to the ground to stop them rampaging through the streets. He’d seen them cultivate carnivorous plants that made their mightiest Earth counterparts look like daisies because those plants’ flowers and fruits had too much medicinal value to ignore. He’d read and listened to the long history of Tamaran, its greatest triumphs and harshest tragedies alike, and he could say with full conviction that he was proud to be accepted among its people.
And if the Citadel warlords thought they could take that all away, Nightwing – Mari’kesh in Tamaranean – was far from the only one ready to put them in their place.
*******
Empress Koriand’r and Emperor Mar’ikesh stood at the edge of a jagged peak about a dozen miles out from Tamaran’s capital. The empress hovered just off the ground, though what joy sustained her at a time like this her husband could only guess. The source of the small crackles of viridian light playing at her fingertips was much easier to identify.
“What are you thinking?” Mar’ikesh asked. His grip tightened a little on the carved fighting staff propped against the ground – heavier than the bo staff he’d wielded years ago, but a comforting presence nonetheless – and he peered up beyond her to see how much of the descending warships he could make out.
Koriand’r did not answer right away, but her nostrils flared as if in challenge and she squinted closer against the haze of distance.
“There,” she finally said, pointing out one ship among many. “The Citadel disguised it well, but it’s just a little too bulky to be practical for an ordinary fighter, and too well-guarded. That is where we will find the command center.”
“Hmm.” Mar’ikesh didn’t have a Tamaranean’s distance vision, so he would have to take her word for it. In spite of the dire circumstances, the corner of his lip twitched into the tiniest of smirks.
“So now all we have to do is head straight for the ship with the most firepower and the heaviest guard,” he said. “Sounds fun.”
Koriand’r could not bring herself to share his dark humor. “They will not take our children.”
Mar’ikesh let his smirk evaporate. He wasn’t sure whether she was thinking of their own children – evacuated from the capital, now, and hidden as safely as they could be in a distant fortress – or the children, the people, the future of Tamaran itself. Either way, he replied, “No. They won’t.”
With a concerned frown, he eyed her and added, “You’re sure about this plan?”
The split-second of hesitation before she nodded was barely perceptible, not enough room for argument. “Yes. I can fly more quickly than a ship, and I’m a much smaller target. This is the best chance we have to end this quickly.”
Mar’ikesh nodded back. “I’ll be right beside you, even if I do need a ship.”
********
The flight to meet the invasion fleet went by in a tense blur. Mar’ikesh was not the only one who needed mechanical assistance to get there – only the best fliers dared join their empress in taking this mission on without the protection of a ship’s hull and shield, and in any case they needed the firepower to pierce the shields covering the command ship’s hull. But they sent a single fighter ship, their smallest and fastest, and cloaked along with the empress and their fliers until they got close enough to open fire.
What followed were a few tense minutes of sheer madness that seemed to stretch on to forever, as fighter and fliers alike dove and weaved to avoid return fire all while trying to make a breach in the command center. Mar’ikesh could only wait, white-knuckled in his seat, while blasts from the Citadel’s fighters strained the limits of his own ship’s shields and fliers around him fell. He could not say how many were hit and how many recovered, but he did not see Koriand’r among them. Speed, maneuverability, and surprise all seemed to be working in their favor.
In that time of waiting and praying, it struck him all at once that he didn’t know what he would do if he lost her. He had given up everything back on Earth to be with Koriand’r, with Starfire, when she had first been summoned to take the throne. They had both lost the lives they’d built for themselves twice over now, to tragedy and duty and love, but duty and love had given them a chance to build their lives anew. They had a family now.
If his children lost their mother while he was stuck waiting in a tiny fighter ship, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to forgive himself.
The sudden crackling of the command ship’s force shield tore him from his morbid thoughts, and the pilot of his fighter whooped as the shield finally dissolved under the Tamaraneans’ fire. The gunners didn’t miss a moment, and in seconds more the weaker physical hull of the command ship had been breached.
And then a new chaos broke out as the door to the fighter flung open and a Tamaranean flier leaned in to gather him and the other small handful of passengers. It was not Koriand’r, and Mar’ikesh had to fight to stop himself from making a leap of logic and assuming the worst.
Wordlessly, he undid his harness and took the flier’s arms in a trapeze hold like he’d done with his wife so, so many times. The Tamaranean pulled him out and up past the wild and confused shots of their enemies, and in another several stretched-out seconds they were through the breach in the command ship’s hull.
Mar’ikesh’s racing heart skipped a beat when he saw Koriand’r there, already felling Citadel guards with a flurry of well-placed starbolts. He pulled the staff from where it was clipped against his back and moved to join her.
“If anyone tries to challenge you for the throne after this, I’m kicking their varblernelki myself,” he quipped, swinging the staff wide to catch two Citadelians around the midsection and slam them against the wall.
Now, as the Tamaraneans were making headway, Koriand’r allowed herself a fierce grin. “And I will gladly watch,” she replied, flinging two more Citadel warriors to the end of the hall with her eyebeams.
The two of them whirled around one another, working together with practiced ease and watching each other’s blind spots as they fought. Before long the first wave of Citadel guards had been dispatched, and the Tamaranean team began making their way to the main control center. There they would be able to wreak havoc on the standing fleet’s organization and – with luck – claim some of it for their own. If this mission went well enough, they’d weaken the Citadel’s forces enough to end its invasion before it really started.
The two of them had found their paths changed twice each: Princess Koriand’r and Dick Grayson, to Starfire and Robin, to Empress Koriand’r and Emperor Mar’ikesh. They had rebuilt both times together, overcome countless challenges together, and now they could not truly imagine their lives taking any other path.
And whatever world they lived on, so long as they drew breath they were going to ensure that world was not lost.
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sparrow-in-the-field · 5 months ago
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Oh man the part I just wrote in The Cormant 🥹🥹 I'm so emotional
These boys are my babies, I want to put them all in my pocket for safekeeping
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always-a-slut-4-ghouls · 7 months ago
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I just looked at the price on the back of a book I’ve had for a bit over a decade and it was four. fucking. dollars. Just four with no taxes. No extra 97cents or something before taxes. Just a round number that you would add taxes to.
I googled the price of a new edition and it was almost thirteen! Not an even thirteen, it was like 12.96 or something. Close enough that it’s basically thirteen but if you’re adding multiple items together to try and get the price on a purchase with more items it would add more confusion.
#emma posts#it was also a bit difficult to find a new copy on my phone#the edition I have was selling for wildly varying prices as a vintage book now#but that’s just a kids chapter book from a fairly large publisher#I know inflation happens and stuff but holy shit#buying things at the book fair makes so much more sense now#I bought that for 4$ plus taxes at the schoolastic book fair#it was maybe 12 years ago?#I could look at the publishing date for a better idea#the series had just switched publishers and the first few were being re-released at the time#before the new publisher and the author finished the series#four dollars though#I had to check the book because I know the current price of many paperbacks and I knew that series was still in print#but what lead to this was the price tag falling off an old brush I found from like. 2009 or 2010#and the tag on this very large brush was seven dollars#which seemed cheap so I looked at current brush prices online but since the exact same brush isn’t being sold and brush prices vary more#it was a bit harder for me to get an idea of it. books though. books I know#I’ve even bought stuff from that publisher recently (they have a lot of novel and comic translations)#but it also struck me how the old price tag was an even four and an even seven dollars but all new ones had 97 or 98 cents#that ten dollars from helping out grandma wouldn’t have even gotten me one book with modern prices#but back then I could get TWO#even just seven could have gotten me a book and some fun school supplies back then#to have that experience now you would need to give your kid a 20$#I understand inflation okay? I am just taken off guard rn and having realizations#I’m going to add to this post again. when I say wildly varied vintage prices I mean WILDLY varied#one dude was trying to sell it on Amazon for 55$ but on eBay it was 4 to 5$#I bought the next three books in the series from that same print. signed. for 13$ together#I had older editions of those and wanted a full series of just the ones that were being re-released during my reading time
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mirrortouchedsea · 10 months ago
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HiMERU was fuming when he walked into the church. His brother was just sitting here this whole time, not even bothering to look for him or do anything useful? HiMERU needed to stay calm. His fists were clenched at his side. He walked up to Tatsumi Kazehaya and asked him if he had been keeping Kaname against his will, which was met with a negative response. Kaname had stayed of his own free will. I would never force someone to stay, Tatsumi said.
HiMERU stormed over to his brother seated in one of the pews next to Amagi’s younger brother and the other child he couldn’t be bothered to learn the name of and grabbed him by the wrist. Let’s go, there’s no reason for you to stay here. Kaname resisted, though HiMERU was stronger and continued walking out to where Rinne, Niki and Kohaku were sitting outside. 
Onii-chan I can’t leave. That priest said he wasn’t forcing you to stay so we’re going. He isn’t but--onii-chan please just listen-- 
HiMERU took one step outside the chapel, Kaname’s hand breaching the doorway, still in his grasp. It suddenly felt… 
He looked down and saw it begin to rot away. 
I can’t leave, Onii-chan. 
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oceanwithouthermoon · 6 months ago
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me making another ship playlist, this time for one im literally the only person who cares about <3333 love being a self indulgent shipper
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icewindandboringhorror · 1 year ago
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I know this is just a silly bad quality random screencap of a screencap that I found on facebook lol, BUT it's a succinct enough image to easily describe the concept in a quick/accessible way hopefully :
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(and of course, feel free to elaborate in tags, etc.! (especially elaborating about other senses as well.. can you "hear" in your mind just as well as you can "see"? taste? etc.) It's an interesting topic to me, as someone who's like a 4.5 at MOST lol. I'm curious what option will be the most common :0c )
#tumblr polls#hrmm... a little poll perhaps.. about a subject I find interesting.. since this image came across my facebook today#still really not feeling that well. no longer shaking violently and such but I still feel weird and weak much more than usual#They did say my markers for like infection or inflammation were elevated but that they werent sure of the cause so hopefully#it's nothing too serious. they did also say a lot of different things can cause that thing to be higher than normal but didn't go into spec#fics of what. maybe some of them are relatively benign or something. I still havent felt much back to normal since#I got really sick that one time though. I feel fine on and off but then little bouts of feeling weird and sick happen. hrmmm#ANYWAY.. looking for small ways to be productive. such as little doodles on evil ipad or editing game videos#or posting polls or cat pictures or some other like not very labor intensive things#I WISH I COULD FOCUS on writing HHRGGhh... I need to finish my game.. it would be so freeing.. a project that's been looming#over my head for like 5 years even though througouht that 5yrs I've probably spent a total of 3 months working on it lo.. ANYWAY#I still partially really cannot beleive that people CAN see stuff in their heads. There's always part of me that's thinking like. well mayb#e everyone DOES see the same exact thing but we just describe/conceptualize it so differently that we think we're talking about#different things when we're really not. But I have been assured by people I've talked to about it that they can GENUINELY really see#stuff in their heads like as vivid as an actual picture in real life or something. And the other senses are neat too. Like for exmaple I#can hear in my head much better than I can see imagery. I still CANNOT hear vividly like as if I were listening to actual music out loud..#but I think it's developed more than my sight. AND interesting how this varies the creative process. a friend I was talking to on the phone#said they write by literally just watching stuff play before them like a movie. where my process is COMPLETELY different. AND that affects#the content/what details we focus on as well as our individual styles of writing have differences that can be traced back to that.. hrmm
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pigeon-wizard · 4 months ago
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trans lesbian Hau icons ^_^ with and without nerodivergent rainbow infinity symbol (she is so auststic to me, it's a bit unreal honestly)
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under the keep reading are backgrounds i made in case anyone else would like to make headcannon edits like this :3
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no credit needed but i wouldn't mind if you tagged me if you post your edits. have fun and i hope you are happy and safe (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧
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